LIVINGSTON, Mich. — Some 7,200 gallons of concentrated Mountain Dew syrup created a "huge foaming event" and generated environmental concerns after it went down the drain, literally, at the Pepsi bottling plant in Livingston last month. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was at the plant on several occasions after a tank ruptured and sent the syrup through a floor drain and into the plant's internal sewer system on March 10, said DEQ Senior Environmental Quality Analyst Carla Davidson. "A spill of this magnitude is highly unusual,” Davidson said, noting the high-sugar syrup can have a toxic effect on aquatic life if it ends up in rivers, lakes or streams. Most of the spill was contained, and PepsiCo and city officials said proper procedures were used following the spill. Davidson disagreed. Read more: “They could have chosen to isolate,” Davidson said, noting she did not visit the scene until later, so information about the initial chain of events came from reports submitted by PepsiCo and compiled later by DEQ staff. “They have an equalization basin; they knew there was a spill and they could have tried to isolate it, then have that waste water hauled away to protect the integrity of their pretreatment system. “That’s what normally we would recommend during a spill event like that,” she added. Davidson said plant management attempted to treat the problem without outside intervention for two days, until the system became overwhelmed. The DEQ received a call to its Pollution Emergency Alert System line just before midnight on March 12, when the syrup, mixed with a large amount of waste water already in the system, created a “a huge foaming event” and sent an estimated 56,000 gallons of sugary sewage flowing out of the system. Most of the spilled 56,000 gallons flowed into the onsite stormwater detention basin, where it was contained, Davidson said, while a small amount went into a ditch behind Key Plastics, where an earthen dam was constructed to contain it. Pepsi also brought in an environmental contractor, and Davidson said when she visited the following Friday, it was evident the soil had been scraped and the area cleaned up. “As far as impact to the environment, I think Pepsi is cleaning it up, and we’ll be working with them to prevent discharges like this from happening in the future,” Davidson said. “There was not a release to surface water that we know of, so that’s also a positive.” “They told us a syrup tank ruptured, so one question we will be asking is ‘Why did this happen?’ We want to make sure the other tanks have good structural integrity, and any maintenance needed is done.” Howell City Manager Shea Charles said he and other city employees were onsite during the days following the spill and said he believed Pepsi followed protocol for such an event. “We were out there monitoring; it did not get into the public sewer system,” Charles said, noting any waste that spilled on the ground was contained as it froze when temperatures dropped.” Jennifer Ryan, a New York-based PepsiCo spokesperson, issued this statement via email: “Being good stewards of the environment and the communities in which we operate is one of our highest priorities. When this event occurred we immediately took action to mitigate the impact, and we continue to work collaboratively with our neighbors and local agencies to ensure that our clean-up efforts are in compliance with all applicable regulations and meet our company’s high environmental standards.” Follow Laura Colvin on Twitter: @LauraColvin22

“It’s not “Morning in America.” Rather, Trump makes uncertainty and volatility great again. Stocks exhibit a volatility and randomness in price action rarely ever seen — 1% daily moves become common place. The S&P 500 hits a high of 2,375 for the year and a low of 1,815 (down some 22.5% from today). Ultimately, it closes the year down 15%.”
–Kass Diary 15 Surprises for 2017
Over the years, like just about everyone else who has ever invested or traded in equity markets, I have spent some time studying market tops.
What do they look like? Is there a general pattern — the equivalent of a…

In a recent piece for the Wall Street Journal, columnist Justin Lahart wondered If Americans dont buy so many cars and trucks, will they buy other things instead? Supposedly the answer to his question could matter a lot to the economy.
Laharts economic analysis is informed by the teachings of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes believed that consumption was the driver of economic growth, and his teachings broadly inform the analysis of economists, along with most who write about economics. But is it correct? Simple logic indicates that it isnt. Consumption really doesnt…

Is it really possible to provide market-based health coverage to all working Americans? Or is some form of public plan the only way to assure affordable coverage, as many liberals insist?
The House replacement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, foundered in large part because Republicans could not agree on fundamental design issues for structuring a subsidy for private coverage. The heart of the ill-fated plan was a refundable tax credit for the purchase of private health insurance; making the credit refundable meant money would be available to the nearly half of American…

<p>United CEO Oscar Munoz doubled down in a letter to employees on Monday evening, claiming that employees "followed established procedures" when removing a passenger from a plane because it was overbooked, and calling the passenger "disruptive and belligerent."</p>

United Airlines called the police after a seated passenger declined to leave a flight to Louisville, Ky. Officers violently pulled him from his window seat and then down the aisle as passengers yelled at them to stop.&nbsp;

An out-of-control sales culture, a defensive boss obsessed with stamping out negative views about her division and a group chief executive who called her the "the best banker in America" were to blame for Wells Fargo &amp; Co's devastating sales scandal, an internal investigation found.

Volkswagen AG is making progress settling U.S. legal claims from its emission-cheating scandal, but one challenge looms unresolved: What to do with the hundreds of thousands of diesel cars it is being forced to buy back?